The top U.N. official, Ban Ki-moon, is urging countries to produce a comprehensive climate agreement and launch a $100 billion green fund at the upcoming U.N. climate change conference in South Africa, which the development community is largely pessimistic about in terms of achieving breakthroughs.
Governments should find a way forward for the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012, to produce a comprehensive and broader climate change agreement, Ban has noted. He also urged governments attending the conference in Durban, South Africa, to launch the Green Climate Fund, which was created last year in Cancun, Mexico.
“But it must not be an empty shell – a fund in name only. Governments must provide the $100 billion that was pledged. This would be a welcome concrete outcome at Durban,” Ban stressed.
Meanwhile, the international community appears pessimistic the conference in Durban would produce breakthroughs, the Guardian noted. This downbeat outlook can be attributed to the economic downturn in rich countries and the climate skepticisms in key countries, such as the United States, among other factors, the newspaper notes.
Read more development aid news online, and subscribe to The Development Newswire to receive top international development headlines from the world’s leading donors, news sources and opinion leaders — emailed to you FREE every business day.